5.  The applicant was born in 1979 and serves his sentence.
6.  In 1996 the applicant moved from Ukraine to the Sakha Republic in the Russian Federation.
7.  On 21 June 1998 a Mr G. was murdered in the city of Yakutsk, Russia. According to the applicant, the murder was committed by Mr Gl. and the applicant only helped to transport and hide the body.
8.  On 14 September 1998 the police instituted criminal proceedings into the murder of Mr G. The same day the applicant was arrested and questioned as a suspect. He showed the police the place where the decapitated corpse of Mr G. was hidden.
9.  On 10 October 1998 the applicant’s girlfriend Ms R. indicated to the police the place where the head of the murdered Mr G. was hidden.
10.  The investigation conducted a number of forensic examinations and questioning, including cross-examination by the applicant of some of the witnesses.
11.  On 12 February 1999 the applicant was released under an obligation not to abscond.
12.  On 11 March 1999 Mr Gl., who had been on the run, was arrested. The next day the applicant breached his undertaking not to abscond and left for Ukraine.
13.  On 19 November 1999 the Supreme Court of the Sakha Republic (the Russian Federation) sentenced Mr Gl. to fifteen years’ imprisonment for the murder of Mr G. This judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and became final on 19 April 2000.
14.  On 2 December 1999 the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation requested the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine under the CIS Convention on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters 1993 (“the Minsk Convention”) to prosecute the applicant for the crime committed on the territory of the Russian Federation, given that the applicant, a Ukrainian national, could not be extradited to Russia.
15.  On 4 April 2001 the applicant was arrested within another set of criminal proceedings and on 31 July 2001 the Chornobayivsky Local Court sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment for another, unrelated offence. On 25 September 2001 the Cherkassy Regional Court of Appeal (the Cherkassy Court) upheld that judgment.
16.  On 4 October 2001, under the request of 2 December 1999, the applicant was charged with murder committed on the territory of the Russian Federation in June 1998.
17.  On 18 December 2001 the Cherkassy Court, sitting as a court of first instance, held its first hearing in the criminal case against the applicant. The applicant’s lawyer requested the court to summon and examine the witnesses who had participated in the judicial proceedings on the territory of the Russian Federation, and also Mr Gl.
18.  The Cherkassy Court summoned the witnesses to appear before it on 15 January and then on 19 February 2002
19.  On 22 February 2002 the Cherkassy Court granted the request of the applicant’s defence counsel to cross-examine the witnesses in the criminal proceedings who lived in the Russian Federation. The court noted that some witnesses had confirmed their statements by cable and stated that they could not travel to Cherkassy for financial reasons[1]. The court ruled that it was necessary to examine the witnesses either in Ukraine or at their place of residence by a local judicial authority with jurisdiction under the Minsk Convention. Taking into account lack of sufficient funds for travel and accommodation for the witnesses from the city of Yakutsk in the city of Cherkassy, the court opted for the international legal assistance mechanism and ordered that the appropriate Russian authorities be requested to conduct a judicial examination of the witnesses in the Russian Federation. The records of that examination would be used by the Cherkassy Court as evidence in the criminal case against the applicant. The court also noted that as an alternative the witnesses could be brought to Cherkassy if the relevant authorities of the Russian Federation could cover their costs.
20.  On 6 March 2002 and 19 April 2002, under the procedure envisaged by the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, the court lodged with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine a request for letters rogatory to be sent to the Russian authorities in order to have nine citizens residing in the Russian Federation questioned or to ensure their appearance before the court.
21.  The questioning took place in February and March 2003.
22.  On 5 May 2003, having received the materials that had been requested by letters rogatory from the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine forwarded them to the court.
23.  On 29 July 2003 the Cherkassy Court found the applicant guilty of murder and sentenced him to fourteen years’ imprisonment. The court based its findings on the materials in the criminal case file received from the relevant Russian authorities and the materials obtained during the judicial examination of witnesses by the court in Russia in February and March 2003. The court also made a separate ruling noting the unlawfulness and irregularities of certain periods of the applicant’s detention and lack of cooperation of the Ukrainian authorities responsible for international legal assistance.
24.  The applicant appealed in cassation complaining, among other things, that the evidence obtained in the Russian Federation was not admissible, since the applicant and his lawyers had not participated in the questioning.
25.  On 18 November 2003 the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Cherkassy Court. In its decision, it stated that the applicant and his representatives had been aware of the difficulty of obtaining the attendance of witnesses from Russia and had agreed to and supported the proposal to send a request to a Russian court to have the witnesses questioned in that country, but that they had not showed any interest in attending the questioning, which they had had the right to do. In the absence of any actions on the part of the applicant and his lawyer in this matter, the court did not establish any violation of the applicant’s right to defence.